Friday, November 8, 2013

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line,
and I will contend that a straight line is boring, and that point B should be
worth it. This statement is ages old, and is true for both mathematics - and
squirrels crossing streets.

Point A could be anywhere on earth. It could be your 1940’s
aluminum-clad home in the north end of Boise, the one with alfalfa-length lawn,
a bad sprinkler head, and a gravel driveway longing to be a sweep of white
cement. Sure it has a great view of an old weeping willow, an incessant street parade
of cruiser riding hipsters, and a suspiciously frequent flow of Fed Ex deliveries
next door, but it’s your very own
point A – your ‘basecamp’.

Starting points can also be temporary; mountain trailheads, terminal
desert roads, Piggly Wiggly parking lots, your current career, your freshly
fractured leg, that time when you were lost in the Macy’s at the mall and
needed a bathroom more than anything in the world - everything we do that has
an endpoint requires a start, no matter how small.

Nepal

Patagonia

Point B’s, of course, are actually just goals – be they large
or small – and can only be achieved through some form of trial. I am unsure as
to whether the Macy’s epic would qualify as a worthy and difficult goal – but
at that time there was nothing more important in my life that finding the men’s
bathroom, hidden within the cinematic glass and mirror labyrinth of Guess, Dior,
and Prada advertising.

I believe that our entire lives are made up of small and
frequent quests, where point A and point B are actually quite trivial within our
busy lives, and yet, cumulatively, they form our story and the way we grow.

Indonesia

Seldom is the path to B just a straight line. In fact, the
path is, in my opinion, the most important aspect of the objective. It is this
journey that will produce the tale, give you courage, and, depending on the
gymnastic nature of the route, create a destination even more worthwhile.
Furthermore, motivation for the path will often be based on the value of the
prize. Take for example a soccer match, which can sometimes end with a single
goal - where entire countries loose their minds with happiness; the kind of
happiness that triggers gleeful fans to overturn parked cars and cheerfully
beat each other to a pulp.

Thailand

When people see my photographs they say, “Oh wow, I wish I
could travel like you do”, and I always say the same thing, “Then just go.” I
do not possess the income of a classical world travel; in fact, I possess the
modest income of an emergency room nurse. What I do have (besides an amazing
wife), that most people don’t understand, is the ability to mentally draw a
line between two points – and just go. Once the tickets are purchased, the tank
is filled, or the pack is strapped on – it’s just a matter of getting there.
All other material requirements are weighed against what will be taken to the
grave – and memories always win.

Snapshots

Recently, my wife Jill and I traveled to Komodo Island, a
small deserty point of land sticking out of the south Pacific ocean and filled
with gigantic ox-eating lizards. Our goal was to live on a rough-built wooden
schooner for a week, dive in the sapphire blue waters of the coral triangle,
and take tons of pictures of the Indonesian environment. However, this particular
point B was a long way from home. So much so that to contemplate the journey as
a single move was too much for my aging brain, and so it was mentally broken
into stages; point A to Singapore, Singapore to Bali, Bali to Flores Island,
and finally onto a wooden ship – point B. Of course, having all of our luggage
travel to Hong Kong for a few days was not anywhere on the itinerary, but was
simply part of the journey. Between being sealed within a Boeing 747 (what I
like to refer to as the ‘container of pestilence’) trapped near the ‘sniffing
man’ for 15 hours, the bookshop punk that used his credit card skimmer to copy
our VISA information (which allowed him and three close friends access to a
wonderful brothel of sultry Bali women), becoming snared in the web of a giant
golden orb spider, and the dripping heat of a tropical furnace – we had a superb
adventure, and brought back some respectable images.

Idaho

Goals are what drive our feeble species – whether it is
total world domination or just getting up early enough to catch the sunrise. Some
objectives are all consuming and occur at the same rate that grass grows, like Erden Eruc’s circumnavigation
of the earth by rowboat and bicycle in 1,026 days, or the 1969 era 2 ½ hour
hike in virgin dirt that cost 350 million dollars – and was on the moon! More
often, however, accomplishments are frequent, of short duration, and often
times occur without much planning at all. When the sneaker wave rolled up the
beach and engulfed your Blackberry with swirling saltwater, your point B was
just to quickly deliver the phone to an elevation of three feet above sea
level. Granted, the planning here was quick, and more along the lines of a
neuromuscular driven reflex arc, but the idea is the same. Imagine it, plan it,
and just do it.

I
know, the motto of Nike is about as true and concise as it can get. But, since
it is linked so directly to the Nike Corporation, I will never utter the trifecta of immoral corporate irresponsibility here
again. Apologies, I digress…

Nepal

Travel
and photography go together like baby monkeys and the word, “Awww.” And I would
contend that, other that pornography and baby pictures, destination images are
often times why people buy cameras, airline and train tickets, postcards,
coffee table books, screen savers, mouse pads, and pictures for their walls –
these images are what fill most all of our photo books and our memories.
Chances are that if you try to recall a trip you took with your family as a
small child, say to Disneyland or the Sawtooth Mountains, your brain will
instantly conjure up images from that trip – you will first recall the glossy
paper snapshots that were taken on a Polaroid or a Kodak Instamatic with a
‘flash cube’, snapshots from your mom’s vacation album, snapshots that have all
but replaced the actual faded memories.

Capturing
these snapshots, paired with any destination – a point B – can produce some of
the most wonderful, vivid memories that we will ever have, and quite possibly
an array of beautiful photographs that are both engaging to view and very
personal. Planning and implementing such a journey is an exhilarating
endeavor, and to do it with your best friend, your best camera, and with a hint
of unknown, well – that’s as good as it can get. All we need to do - is just go.

About Me

I travel as much as I can afford, and afford much less than I desire. The rewards, however, are priceless.Watching sunlight creep across a red desert valley, glitter through an emerald forest, or transform a desolate expanse of ice and snow into a wrinkled lavender blanket is much more than these photographs can provide. They are simply tiny slices of time, a memory; a single moment of the landscape that will never be the same again.